Linear light fixture with LED strips lighting guide

Lines of light are a new trend for interior lighting, especially because of the possibility to build a personalized installation. The illuminated lines can be placed on walls or ceiling, in the form of recessed, surface or suspended lighting fixtures.

These lighting fixtures are made with an LED strip inside an aluminum profile that has a translucent white cover, can be many meters long, installed in patters or geometric shapes. 

 

Compared with indirect cove lighting, also a popular trend in lighting design, lines of light provide direct lighting. This is more energy efficient, but can have greatly increased glare. For this reason, lines of light should be designed with care and are recommended to be dimmable. 

Let's see how we can achieve the best results with lines of light.

1. Use of energy-efficient light sources

Choose LED modules or strips with high energy efficiency, at least 100 lm/w, so the linear fixtures have the highest luminous flux with the lowest energy consumption. 

If the lines of light are partially hidden and light via reflection you should avoid surfaces that are more absorptive than reflective, like dark paint or wood should be avoided unless the design is primordial to energy efficiency. White or light wooden surfaces produce the best results.

 

2. Select an LED light source with the correct light output and number of LEDs.

The illumination via lines of light serve a variety of purposes. It can guide people, highlight architectural elements or trigger a particular design trend and at the same time provide ambient, general or workplace lighting.

For visible, direct, lines of light, an important issue to consider is to uniformly backlight the translucent cove and not have hotspots. LED strips with a minimum of 140 LEDs per meter are recommended. For best results, choose COB LED strips with continuous light, especially designed for continuous lines of light.

We strongly advise that the purpose played of lighting in a room determine the type and luminous flux of the

light source to be used. The following luminous flux per meter value can serve as a useful orientation guide:

A) Ambient light or highlight of objects or furniture elements: up to 600 lumens per meter (200 lm per foot)

 

B) General lighting for residential: up to 1200 lumens per meter or 400 lm/foot

 

C) General lighting for commercial and business applications or workplace lighting: up to 2900 lumens per meter (700 lm/foot).

 

Suggestion for length of line of light for a living room of 20 sqm with 2.5m in height with the purpose of general lighting:

• Lines of light with 500 lm/meter: at least 20 meters total length
• Lines of light with 1000 lm/m: at least 10 meters total length
• Lines of light with 2500 lm/m: at least 4 meters in total length

 

3. Use LED strips that are easy to install and have low redundancy of parts

The light sources have to be easily installed out over long distances and use as less auxiliary items as possible, for example wires, connectors, screws or transformers.  A large capacity transformer is recommended.

4. Place lines of light so glare is reduced

By using many lines of light inside a space, glare could become a serious issue that affects well-being or productivity. We recommend placing the lines of light at the extremities of a space, so the light will uniformly wash down on a wall. 

 

 

5. Use LED modules or strips with the best light quality, spectrum and color rendering index.

For general and work place lighting, we recommend lines of light that closely match daylight in light spectrum and color temperature (at a certain time of day, as below).

 

 

We recommend LED strips with minimum CRI80 for all work and living places, such as office, living room, dining room bedroom and so on with CRI97+ as the recommended value.

6. Install LED modules or strips with the longest lifetime, the lowest color shift and best lumen maintenance.

Long lasting LED light sources with minimal color shift in time are recommended, especially for installations with considerable lengths. If the brightness of the light source fades too soon or the color temperature changes the total replacement of the installation could be the only solution for uniform lighting.

For example, if "LEDs 1" are used in the installation and the light changes as in the image on the right, replacing only some sections with "LEDs 2" will exacerbate the lack of uniformity, as in the image below.

On our website you will find many flexible LED strips to build the best lines of light possible.

 

1. LED strips with high LED count, for continuous lines of light

2. LED strips for lines of light with up to 600 lm/m

3. LED strips for lines of light with up to 1200 lm/m

4. LED strips for line of light up to 2900 lm/m

5. Full spectrum LED strips with CRI97+ with SunLike Tri-R technology from Toshiba and Seoul Semiconductor for the most natural lighting possible

6. Nichia LumiFlex LED strip for lines of light with the highest energy efficacy and lifetime up to 200.000 hours. Minimum CRI for the LumiFlex is 80 with 90+ versions available also.

For linear fixtures as lines of light you can choose from recessed or surface place aluminum profiles: